“Here we are, father!” she blurted.
“Father?” Adam thought. Where did that come from? He realized that he had never thought of the old man in that way, only as a friend. But the term father, in that it meant provider and protector, could be deemed appropriate for their relationship although Adam preferred friend and decided that he would probably never call the old man father. The old man, however, was surprised and pleased by her use of that epithet. The woman, he thought, was really one of my better ideas. She is not only pleasing to the man but to me as well. Her sweetness and trusting nature will allow her to serve the man well, endearing her to him and thereby insuring that she will always be in a position to influence him, to temper his impulsiveness with wisdom and compassion. Yes, she is good for the man. And the man is good for her as well. Together they are better than either would be alone. “Come, children, let’s talk together,” he said as he made himself comfortable on a natural outcropping of rock that had been shaped almost like a huge stone chair with a rounded out seat and back that made it quite comfortable to sit for those who fit it, despite its unyielding composition. The old man fit in it perfectly.
“There you go,” Adam thought as he and Eve took their seats near the foot of the old man’s chair. “Children,” he echoed in his mind with disdain. You call someone father and right away you become a child, a child that needs lecturing and direction. Already today he had laid down the law about the special trees. Now we will probably get more of the same, do this, don’t do that. What will be next? I wish Eve had not called him father.
His fretting was for naught, however, as the old man began by asking them about their day. Since they had spent most of it together doing things that Adam thought did not concern anyone but Eve and himself, he was reluctant to talk about it. But Eve surprised him by embarking on a play by play retelling of all the events of the day. Shyly at first, but as she got further into the story describing her own desires and feelings, she began to gain confidence. Her story became both intriguing and arousing to Adam as she unabashedly shared all of the thoughts and emotions that had driven her to the peak of affection for her mate. He carefully watched the old man’s face for signs of disdain or disapproval but was unable to detect any. Instead the old man listened with interest, commenting or encouraging her to continue with a nod or a smile, absorbing all of it but not judging any of it. Adam was not embarrassed by her words although he still believed that what they shared together was no one else’s business. But he was glad for the telling because it cleared the air of any secrets and gave him the confidence of knowing that she shared his feelings of affection. The old man seemed pleased with the conversation so far so Adam deemed the time was right to ask the questions that were on his mind.
“Where do you go when we are apart?” he asked. “Do you leave the garden? Is there another place?”
The old man was taken aback by the question. The man never ceases to surprise me, he thought. Where does he get this curiosity? “Yes, Adam, there is another place,” the old man replied honestly. He got up and stepped to the bank of the small pond, or more accurately water garden, nearby and scooped up a hand full of mud. Rolling it gently into a sphere he said, “The world is like this, only much bigger. The garden is only a small part of it. But outside the garden, the world is very different. The animals fight and kill one another for food. The trees with fruit are far apart and there are many trees that bear no fruit that people can eat.” The word people piqued Adam’s curiosity.
“People? Are there others like us?”
“There are others, but they are not like you. They do not have a beautiful garden to live in with plenty of food to eat. They must work to grow food or search for it and gather it. They also kill animals to eat. Sometimes when there are many in one place, they fight and even kill each other to see who will be the leader. They are not like you and Eve.”
“Will they come to the garden and kill us and take our food?” he asked, the anxiety that he was feeling becoming audible in his voice.
“No, they cannot come here. I will not let them come here and harm you,” the old man said reassuringly.
“But how can you stop them? You are just one old man. What if there are many?”
With that, the old man realized that he must reveal his true nature to them. He had enjoyed the role of friend so much that he wanted to continue in this simple and innocent form, but he knew, by the nature and curiosity that had been given to the man that it simply could not go on like this. So, in the most straight-forward manner, yet trying not to frighten, he began to explain everything to them. They tried to grasp what they could. Adam finally knew why his ribs had hurt so much earlier. He was surprised to know that like the sphere the old man held in his hand, he too was formed of mud then transformed in some way that he could never hope to comprehend. He understood why he could not remember anything before yesterday. He struggled with the part of being created in the old man’s image, with being created at all for that matter. The old man tried to explain it.
“I have created you because I have the ability to create life. I have created you in my image by giving you the ability to also create life. But neither of you can do it alone. When you lie together and become one as Eve explained earlier, a part of the man and a part of the woman join and the joining becomes another person, created in your image. You must nourish that person, as I nourish you, providing food and protection for your child until he can exist on his own.”
Adam pondered these words a few moments then blurted, “But how can we know how to do that if we were never children ourselves?”
The old man sighed. To himself he thought they have been given much intellect and reason, maybe too much. He knew that too much knowledge could sometimes be a dangerous thing and wondered if some the measures he had gone through to protect them from it would be enough. Finally, the solution came to him. Memories, he exclaimed to himself. I will give them memories of a history that will provide them with the skills they need to raise children and to fill the void that haunts them of not having a past to recall. Then to them he said, “Now, it is getting late and I am getting very tired. We have discussed some very important things that are hard to understand. As you think about them you will gain more understanding and if you have more questions, we will talk again tomorrow.”
Adam’s head was reeling. He was determined to grasp these things and find some peace in his now chaotic mind and so he was glad that the old man had called an end to the discussion for the night. He knew instinctively that quiet contemplation would allow him to order his anarchic thoughts into the knowledge and attitude that he needed to continue but right now the thoughts of children, others, creation, time in terms of past and future were all spinning out of control in his head. As the old man departed, Eve gently slipped her arm around his waist and laid her face on his chest in a quiet embrace. He gathered her into his arms not to reassure her with his strength but to draw from her strength to replenish him in this weakness of confusion. As they held on desperately to one another he took strength from the knowledge that she truly cared for him and that whatever they had to face, they would face together. The comfort of that thought allowed the chaos in his head to become order again as his fears began to dissipate one by one. He realized that she was the calming balm that could soothe his blistered mind. They lay down together and she snuggled against him. He felt a sense of relief and security as he drifted into a deep, much needed sleep.
Sleep came quickly to him, but not the sleep that he was used to. Tonight his sleep, while sound and beneficial was punctuated with graphic scenes from a childhood that never was yet was being revealed to him, not externally through the senses like the wonders of discovery were revealed in the garden, but recalled from a reality that existed deep within him. He saw family members, a father, a mother, siblings and cousins and even others that he did not know. The images ran together randomly but each carried a flag of recognition and was woven with his subconscious thoughts changing from single threads of cognizance into that fabric of conscious memory that he would be able to call upon when, in waking moments, he was required to make a knowledge based judgment. These dreams poured over him like a refreshing flood filling the vacuum that existed where memories would normally lie thereby adding a normalcy to his psyche that had formerly been a troubling void in the recall process. Although in the subconscious or perhaps super-conscious state of REM sleep, that part of him that was in charge reveled in this new acquisition of knowledge, interpreting it as a good thing and filling him with peace and tranquility. The euphoria of it stirred him awake. He lay there fully awake recalling the blur of activity which had filled his sleeping mind. Most of it was lost to him now except for a few images that remained vivid and yet while trying to recall the lost images he was actually recalling events from his childhood. He was remembering and that fascinated and excited him to the point that he knew that going back to sleep would be impossible even though it would be several more hours until his normal wake up time. He listened to Eve’s rhythmic but steady breathing and wondered if she too was experiencing the phenomenon of dreaming. He did not wish to disturb her sleep so he got up slowly and quietly moved away from where she was sleeping.
To be Continued…
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